Howard residents come away from wind meeting with questions

Around 30 Howard residents came out in the snow and rain to hear more on the proposed 25-turbine wind project coming to town.

Bob Clark

Around 30 Howard residents came out in the snow and rain to hear more on the proposed 25-turbine wind project coming to town.

Kevin Sheen, the project’s director from EverPower Renewables, came to the Howard Fire Hall to discuss the siting application the company filed in February with the Howard Planning Board.

Resident Jason Halevinski, who will have three turbines placed less than a mile from his home, left with several questions.

“I still feel there’s a lot of issues that need to be addressed,” he said.

Some of the issues Halevinski and others mentioned included impact on groundwater, degraded road conditions during construction, and the training and equipment needed by the Howard Fire Department to fight turbine fires.

“I feel that some of these things are moving too fast,” he said.

Residents also asked about federal subsidies on wind turbines.

“The federal government subsidizes a lot of things,” Sheen said. “Yes, I think we would still be here (in Howard) if there were no subsidies.”

Sheen said the meeting went very well, with most of the residents leaving with their questions answered.

EverPower is planning on constructing 25 Nordex 2.5-megawatt turbines along Turnpike Road and County Route 27 between Howard and Canisteo. The company has received leases from 16 property owners for approximately 7,000 acres on which to build the turbines.

In related news, the Steuben County Industrial Development Agency approved EverPower’s Final Environmental Impact Statement at its Thursday board meeting in Bath.

According to SCIDA, there will be no significant environmental impact on the Howard area because of turbine construction, and EverPower agreed to monitor the area during construction.

SCIDA also will host a public hearing at 5 p.m. April 10 at the Howard Fire Hall to discuss a Payment in Lieu of Taxes agreement for the project.

Under the proposal, the ownership of the project would pass to SCIDA and the project would be leased back to EverPower to make it exempt from property taxes. EverPower would then pay SCIDA a fee based on power production that would be divided between Steuben County, the Town of Howard and the local school districts.